Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Obviously, there is a lot of disagreement regarding the proposed health care legislation. There are a lot of folks who want it, and others who don't. And there are a lot of assurances from Congress and the President that this bill, if enacted, will provide quality health care at a lower cost.

Since the Constitution nowhere authorizes the federal government to take over or run health care, I am opposed to any federal government involvement in health care at all (and the state of the VA hospitals bear out the wisdom of the founders not to make health care among the enumerated powers of the central government).

However, I have an idea how all sides can be appeased through the following compromise:

1) Make it completely voluntary. You can choose to be taxed for the government-run plan, or you can opt out and go with something else.

2) Make all Congressmen, Senators, Supreme Court Justices, and the President participate in the government-run plan, standing in the same lines, being placed in the same queues, subject to the same rationing (which should be no problem, since they all assure us there will be no rationing).

As it stands now, very few people are able to opt out of Social Security (government workers have their own plan and are not required to participate in the SS ponzi scheme). And, Congress has its own health insurance plan. If what they are enacting will be so good, they should participate in it.

Quite simply, the lawmakers ought to live within the laws they make, and the people ought to always have the option not to participate in these programs.

But it will not be so. We know full well the feds will never allow such freedom of choice. Participation will be compulsory, it will be paid for with confiscatory taxes, and the political class will always be exempt from their own shoddy programs.

Maybe that's why so many people are angry.

We know where this is headed. We are watching two trains about to collide while the conductors of the doomed trains are telling us to stop yelling and be rational about the whole thing.

The present government-run programs are fraught with waste and fraud – Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The welfare system encourages single mothers to continue to have illegitimate babies, paying them more hard-earned tax dollars than they can earn at a minimum wage job. Outrageous! Don’t think that a government-run health care program will be any better. The cost of the program will send our national debt to Mars. Father Hollywood, you are right about the fact that our Constitution does not give our small, limited federal government such authority to dominate our internal affairs. Turn this whole matter over to the states. Let them come up with a health plan suitable for their own people. Their plans will work much better.

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Why Father Hollywood?

While serving in a previous ministerial call, I had to moonlight at the local Hollywood Video to pay for health insurance for the family. It took one of my coworkers a couple weeks before she stopped addressing me as "Father" and started using my first name.
It was a fun job. My co-workers were the best. I got free rentals too. You can click here to see a picture. Now you know the rest of the story...